Jason LaCanfora's Blog: The Steve Spagnolo Affair

[Skinsfan55]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/redski ... v=rss_blog

Dan Steinberg has the 360 on how others saw last night's game. Of particular interest to you will be Mike Garafalo's take on a certain matter:

Okay, I've had about enough of [Vinny Cerrato] and owner Dan Snyder telling the media they didn't offer the job to Spags in February. Last night, Andrea Kremer reported Cerrato also told him they didn't have a good feel for Spags. Baloney! You want to know what happened? Spags mulled things over for a night with his wife, Maria, and thought to himself, "Hmmm, something's not right with this job." (Yeah, I know what it was - the guys that were offering it.) So, according to sources, Cerrato and Snyder told Spags not to make them look bad when he turned down the job, which Spags never planned to do, I'm sure. So what happens? A few minutes after news breaks that Spags said no, the AP in Washington reports, according to a source (Do I even have to spell out for you who that source could have been?) both sides agreed Spags isn't ready to be a head coach. One more time: Baloney! If Spags wanted that job, it was his. And he continues to take the high road while Cerrato and Snyder are trying to rewrite their revisionist history book. Keep trying, boys. And keep trying to build a successful team with that kind of approach to things.

Man, it's just discouraging to know those two idiots are running the team. Please sell the team Danny. PLEASE!

[Fios]

Yeah, I was distinctly uncomfortable when Kramer reported that, seemed like the team was trying way too hard to toss Spagnulo under the bus. The fact that the writer calls him "Spags" suggests to me he's a little more personally involved than is professional but I still didn't see the need for Vinny to come out and say that, seemed stupid.

[aswas71788]

Why on earth would any sane person on this earth believe anything that Jason La Canfora writes? He is more anti-redskins that the Dallas Cowboys.

[Skinsfan55]

Why on earth would any sane person on this earth believe anything that Jason La Canfora writes? He is more anti-redskins that the Dallas Cowboys.

To paraphrase Stephen Colbert:

"Reality has a well known anti-Redskins bias"

Sometimes the truth hurts, Sally Jenkins get crapped on by posters here, but she's just being honest. We're in a rebuilding decade. (Make the a rebuilding score)

[aswas71788]

So, we have a sports writer whose history is blantantly anti-redskin writing more hate and discontent from "un-named scources" about something that happened months ago. Since it is an "un-named source" , no one can validate the authenticity of the statement. Why would any rational person care about what happened. It isn't going to change anything now.

Media writers make a living writing things from "un-named sources", most of which is not quite the whole truth or just an outright lie. They are looking for something sensational so they can keep collecting a paycheck, whether it is true or not, whether it hurts somone or not.

If someone wants to believe such crap, why bother to be a Redskins fan?

[Skinsfan55]

So, we have a sports writer whose history is blantantly anti-redskin writing more hate and discontent from "un-named scources" about something that happened months ago. Since it is an "un-named source" , no one can validate the authenticity of the statement. Why would any rational person care about what happened. It isn't going to change anything now.

Media writers make a living writing things from "un-named sources", most of which is not quite the whole truth or just an outright lie. They are looking for something sensational so they can keep collecting a paycheck, whether it is true or not, whether it hurts somone or not.

If someone wants to believe such crap, why bother to be a Redskins fan?

Most of the time sportswriters are homers. They don't sign up to cover the Redskins so they can dish hate on them the same way you or I would rather not be Dallas Cowboy beat writers. They sign up either because they like the team or they become attached after working there a while.

That is, if they like what they see.

But if a sportswriter who is immersed in the team in ways you or I only dream about smells a rat and reports on it, then hell... I'm with that guy. Where there's smoke, there's fire.

Anyway, to your point about "why bother being a Redskins fan [if you are willing to be subjective]" maybe you're right. As Colin Cowherd says, fan is short for fanatic and while I love the Redskins my allegiance doesn't quite have that kind of zealotry.

I guess I'm just a Redskins enthusiast.

[SkinsFreak]

Most of the time sportswriters are homers. They don't sign up to cover the Redskins so they can dish hate on them the same way you or I would rather not be Dallas Cowboy beat writers. They sign up either because they like the team or they become attached after working there a while.

That is, if they like what they see.

But if a sportswriter who is immersed in the team in ways you or I only dream about smells a rat and reports on it, then hell... I'm with that guy. Where there's smoke, there's fire.

JLC is from Baltimore and is reported as being a Ravens fan. He works for the Washington Post because no one else would give him a job.

Anyway, to your point about "why bother being a Redskins fan [if you are willing to be subjective]" maybe you're right. As Colin Cowherd says, fan is short for fanatic and while I love the Redskins my allegiance doesn't quite have that kind of zealotry.

I guess I'm just a Redskins enthusiast.

Thanks for the confirmation.

[GSPODS]

JLC is from Baltimore and is reported as being a Ravens fan. He works for the Washington Post because no one else would give him a job.

Yes, and JLC is anything but a Redskins Insider. The Redskins won't let him anywhere near the management or coaching staff, excepting the parking lot. JLC does not get any closer to inside Redskins Park or FedEx Field than any of us would. Vinny Cerrato has had him barred, and has further advised JLC to print "No Comment" for every question directed towards Cerrato himself or towards Dan Snyder. And that is why he hates on the Redskins front office at every opportunity. Because they hate him and keep him out at all costs. Can anyone imagine the fallout if JLC ever actually had a factual inside story on the Redskins front office?

[Fios]

Beat writers DO NOT get jobs at papers like the Post because they are fans of the team, they get them because that's a primo spot and they have a solid resume and the right connections.

[welch]

And some are Shirely Povich, among the greatest sportswriters of all time. See the Post tribute to Povich at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sp ... povich.htm

In particular, see his football columns, including his article on the 73 - 0 loss to the Bears, at

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sp ... ottime.htm

For instance:

'The Bears Happened'

By Shirley Povich
Washington Post Columnist
Monday, Dec. 9, 1940

If you're wanting to know what happened to the Redskins yesterday, maybe this will explain it: The Bears happened to 'em.

The Redskins' 73-0 defeat by a team that they had licked a month ago, doesn't add up. But there it was. It reminds us of our first breathless visit to the Grand Canyon. All we could say is: "There she is, and ain't she a beaut." When they hung up that final score at Griffith Stadium yesterday, all we could utter was: "There it is and wasn't it awful."

We're going to win one title right here — the championship for understatement — by saying that the Redskins didn't play good football yesterday. But somehow, we can't get mad at the Redskins. It was an agonizing experience for those poor fellows who probably are more angry at themselves than you or us could ever be toward them.

We saw Redskins in tears after the ball game. Some of these elder players weren't sorry for themselves. They were ashamed of the way they let their Washington fans down. They were the fellows who lived through those lean days at Boston where they were playing under sufferance, and who couldn't quite get over the friendliness and the warmth of Washington fans who tried to make big heroes of them.

We can't put in with the folks who say that the Redskins loafed and took it on the lam. They played a lot of bad football, and they were a picture of complete demoralization, but they were trying to play football, if blindly. The Bears, incidentally, are no gentle playmates.

That 73-0 score, of course, is no true comparison of the two teams. The Bears on their great day caught the Redskins on a horrible one. The Redskins, forced to gamble after they were two touchdowns behind in the first five minutes, profaned their game, and the avalanche of Bear touchdowns that followed came easy. The Bears were pouring it on a team that didn't need one or two touchdowns. The Redskins needed four by the end of the first half....<snip>

...just because it's one of the most (in)famous games ever played.

But, really, why bring up Povich?

Because we complain so often about the reporters who now cover the Redskins, so often that we ought to put up a list of complaints, attach numbers, and post the numbers. That would save bytes. While compiling our list, it is worth, once in a while, scanning the great man who covered sports for the Post from 1924 until 1999, who could quote Walter Johnson on Babe Ruth when people were squealing about Mark McGwire, who saw the Redskins come to town and wrote about them until Jack Pardee coached them.

Consider it a measuring stick.

[Skinsfan55]

Beat writers DO NOT get jobs at papers like the Post because they are fans of the team, they get them because that's a primo spot and they have a solid resume and the right connections.

Did I say beat writers get jobs at te Post because they are fans?

No I did not.

I said most beat writers are homers (either because they were previously fans or because they grow attached after a while.)

I still stand by that; most beat writers, like other people surrounding the team are homers. Fact is there's many, many Redskins fans that hate members of the print media for telling the truth.

Hint: If everyone with access (and not hired by the team) says the Redskins are a mismanaged, disjointed mess of a football team... maybe it's not because they have an agenda.

[SkinsJock]

Ther have been many more instances of mistakes by local reporters than there have been accurate portrayals of the Redsins team and it's officers. It is not surprising therefore that we look upon any bad press reports as most likely being a reporter making another bad image just becuse he can - NOT because he has his facts right.

[CanesSkins26]

What does JLC have to do with this? Sure this was in his blog, but the actual story about this was from the Newark Star-Ledger.

[SkinsFreak]

...and why is this even relevant or a story now? Who cares? Spags didn't want the job and maybe after the interview, the Skins didn't want him. Whatever. It's old news that makes no difference now.

[Dishgeek]

That lame attempt at spin was so pathetic even Al Michaels said something about "getting the other side" after the Kramer piece. Made Cerrato and Snyder look like idiots.

Makes you wonder what exactly they were trying to achieve by saying that crap. Looks like Spagnuolo is not going to talk out of school so why bring it up at all? Why not just say "it just didn't work out"? Let the talking heads speculate. Then everyone will dismiss it as what it is, stupid media moron noise. By saying stuff like this you confirm that it didn't go well, and oh, by the way, we're still sore about it. Clowns.

[jeremyroyce]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/redskinsinsider/2008/09/how_others_saw_it_and_lthe_spa.html?nav=rss_blog

Dan Steinberg has the 360 on how others saw last night's game. Of particular interest to you will be Mike Garafalo's take on a certain matter:

Okay, I've had about enough of [Vinny Cerrato] and owner Dan Snyder telling the media they didn't offer the job to Spags in February. Last night, Andrea Kremer reported Cerrato also told him they didn't have a good feel for Spags. Baloney! You want to know what happened? Spags mulled things over for a night with his wife, Maria, and thought to himself, "Hmmm, something's not right with this job." (Yeah, I know what it was - the guys that were offering it.) So, according to sources, Cerrato and Snyder told Spags not to make them look bad when he turned down the job, which Spags never planned to do, I'm sure. So what happens? A few minutes after news breaks that Spags said no, the AP in Washington reports, according to a source (Do I even have to spell out for you who that source could have been?) both sides agreed Spags isn't ready to be a head coach. One more time: Baloney! If Spags wanted that job, it was his. And he continues to take the high road while Cerrato and Snyder are trying to rewrite their revisionist history book. Keep trying, boys. And keep trying to build a successful team with that kind of approach to things.

Man, it's just discouraging to know those two idiots are running the team. Please sell the team Danny. PLEASE!

Dude, its like no matter what Daniel Snyder does there always has to be someone that has to complain. Do you really believe this article?

[Bob 0119]

Yeah, so let me see if I understand this correctly.

Snyder was (or would have been) an idiot for considering "Spags" for the job.

Snyder claims he didn't offer "Spags" the job.

"Spags" kept his current job with a pay raise, and hasn't said anything publically about Snyder offering him the job.

"Spags" has said privately that he wouldn't work for Dan Snyder, but hasn't said that publically.

The reason "Spags" hasn't said that publically is because he's afraid of Dan Snyder?

Could someone remind me why "Spags" would be afraid of a man that he doesn't currently work for, and doesn't plan on working for?

The logic about not wanting to spoil what he has in his current job doesn't really hold water either. If anything it would help the negotiations, right? "Hey, Dan Snyder, the guy who could offer me a salary 10 times that of the most expensive head coach, called me today..."

This is such a non-story it's not even funny. If anything, this "reporter" has found a way to dance around a libel lawsuit by claiming to have some source ("I didn't say it, my un-named source said it") and taking pot-shots at Snyder.

That's all it is...mud-slinging. He's got nothing better to "report" on.

[DEHog]

Could someone remind me why "Spags" would be afraid of a man that he doesn't currently work for, and doesn't plan on working for?

Because Snyder represents a fraternity (of owners) that Spags wants to work for. Imagine him saying something negative publicly about Snyder, how would that fly with other owners who were looking to hire him. You don’t think Snyder would call that owner?? It’s the same reason GW will never say anything negative, and I have it from a very reliable source ( A close friend of GW and a former NFL HC) that Snyder tried to screw him.
I find it hysterical how people on the board discount anything negative about the Skins but agree with something positive from the same source.

We now have in place an ownership that has turned one of the most desirable jobs in the NFL into one of the most least desirable ones. Not even money could pull in a HC this past time. You are in serious denial if you think Jim Zorn was on the long list of HC candidates.

[gibbs4president]

Could someone remind me why "Spags" would be afraid of a man that he doesn't currently work for, and doesn't plan on working for?

Because Snyder represents a fraternity (of owners) that Spags wants to work for. Imagine him saying something negative publicly about Snyder, how would that fly with other owners who were looking to hire him. You don’t think Snyder would call that owner?? It’s the same reason GW will never say anything negative, and I have it from a very reliable source ( A close friend of GW and a former NFL HC) that Snyder tried to screw him.
I find it hysterical how people on the board discount anything negative about the Skins but agree with something positive from the same source.

We now have in place an ownership that has turned one of the most desirable jobs in the NFL into one of the most least desirable ones. Not even money could pull in a HC this past time. You are in serious denial if you think Jim Zorn was on the long list of HC candidates.

I agree with this, especially the part about the treatment of Gregg Williams. Even from a non-football aspect, I was very disappointed with how the Redskins treated Williams after all he did for the organization and also how well he coached.

I wanted them to give Williams the head coaching job, but that's a whole other issue. I just thought even without knowing the particulars about how Williams was treated by Snyder and the front office, they could have handled the situation a lot differently -- especially considering how professional Williams was while handling all the adversity in Washington.

[Redskin in Canada]

It’s the same reason GW will never say anything negative, and I have it from a very reliable source ( A close friend of GW and a former NFL HC) that Snyder tried to screw him. I find it hysterical how people on the board discount anything negative about the Skins but agree with something positive from the same source.

This is -our- secret.

We now have in place an ownership that has turned one of the most desirable jobs in the NFL into one of the most least desirable ones. Not even money could pull in a HC this past time. You are in serious denial if you think Jim Zorn was on the long list of HC candidates.

These are not -our- secrets.

[DEHog]

It’s the same reason GW will never say anything negative, and I have it from a very reliable source ( A close friend of GW and a former NFL HC) that Snyder tried to screw him. I find it hysterical how people on the board discount anything negative about the Skins but agree with something positive from the same source.

This is -our- secret.

We now have in place an ownership that has turned one of the most desirable jobs in the NFL into one of the most least desirable ones. Not even money could pull in a HC this past time. You are in serious denial if you think Jim Zorn was on the long list of HC candidates.

These are not -our- secrets.

If they only knew...HUH RIC?

[Bob 0119]

A fraternity of owners? Why did this come about?

Last I'd heard, he is neither liked nor respected by any of the other owners in the league with the exception of maybe Jerry Jones.

And really, if "Spags" really is all-that-and-a-side-of-fries, I seriously doubt any of the other owners would care that this guy said "Yeah, he called me, but I was happy where I was."

[DEHog]

A fraternity of owners? Why did this come about?

Last I'd heard, he is neither liked nor respected by any of the other owners in the league with the exception of maybe Jerry Jones.

And really, if "Spags" really is all-that-and-a-side-of-fries, I seriously doubt any of the other owners would care that this guy said "Yeah, he called me, but I was happy where I was."

He works in the high pressured, what have you done for me lately NFL!! All the owners are his potential boss. I’m assuming he would like to continue to work for a while, if not as a HC a DC. You don’t just go around talking negative about your potential boss be it Snyder or anyone else. Snyder doesn’t even have to make the call it will be there for all to google, yahoo, and youtube

[Bob 0119]

A fraternity of owners? Why did this come about?

Last I'd heard, he is neither liked nor respected by any of the other owners in the league with the exception of maybe Jerry Jones.

And really, if "Spags" really is all-that-and-a-side-of-fries, I seriously doubt any of the other owners would care that this guy said "Yeah, he called me, but I was happy where I was."

He works in the high pressured, what have you done for me lately NFL!! All the owners are his potential boss. I’m assuming he would like to continue to work for a while, if not as a HC a DC. You don’t just go around talking negative about your potential boss be it Snyder or anyone else. Snyder doesn’t even have to make the call it will be there for all to google, yahoo, and youtube

Sure, he's not going to want to come out and say that Snyder and Cerrato are jerks, but there are plenty of polite ways of turning down a job, such as what I put in my posting. It also doesn't make sense that Snyder and Cerrato would want to keep it quiet when everyone in the country knew they were searching for a head coach.

Any of this other "grassy knoll" theory stuff is bogus.

Norv didn't seem to have any trouble finding work, and he's openly criticized Snyder since he was fired.

[DEHog]

What did Norm ever say?